Path: chuka.playstation.co.uk!scea!peter_alau@playstation.sony.com
From: Joshua Meeds <dreamer@sinclair.net>
Newsgroups: scee.yaroze.freetalk.english
Subject: Re: S*ga Dreamc*st
Date: Mon, 25 May 1998 12:20:49 -0700
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Sega must not like developers or something.  Proprietary 1 Gig CD
format?  This means that developers won't be able to burn their own CD's
for testing.  The company I work for did something like that once - they
used special 79 minute CD's that hold 800 MB.  It took their CD pressing
company 2 weeks to get a standard CD burner that could handle that. 
They should have gone with DVD - yeah, they are a little pricey, but it
would still sell in Japan, and in the year before being released in the
U.S., DVD prices would drop.

And I think they are being dumb in their choice of programming libraries
- when going for ease of use, they chose Direct X?!  Id Software looked
into converting Quake to Direct-X, and after 2 weeks, gave up on it. 
When they tried Open-GL, they had a preliminary version running in 2
days.  Plus, you know the system is going to be a shovelware system -
they'll end up with loads of computer translations.  A few computer
translations isn't bad, but when a majority of homes have computers in
them, who's going to buy 2 of the same game?  Only true fanatics (like
me, I'm gonna buy FFVII PC even though I already have Psx version).

Nick Ferguson wrote:
> 
> Hiya all,
> 
> Yeah, so we're all Sony cadets but this IS freetalk, y'know :-)
> 
>         Anyway, I have to say I'm fairly impressed with the "Dreamcast" specs,
> from what I understand of them, and I don't think the name is *that*
> bad... The logo is quite funky, too. What do you guys/gals reckon?
>         If you haven't really been fussed to look it up, try going to
> www.seganet.com or www.fgnonline.com for some info. The highlights seem
> to be a proprietary 1 Gig CD format, a 33.6 modem as standard and 16 MB
> of system RAM, along with a v. natty-looking "PDA" which slots into the
> machine's pads (a cross between the Saturn analogue pad and the N64's)
> but also works "on the hoof". It also has 4 pad slots a la N64. Launch
> titles include VF3tb, Daytona 2 and probably Sega Rally 2 as well as
> some new Sonic game and probably D2. Launch date is 20th November in
> Japan, with US and European dates set for a year (WTF?!?!) after. So,
> who'll be importing one, then? :-/
>         I think things look promising for the Dreamcast. If it gets some decent
> games (that aren't straight arcade ports) and if the modem aspect takes
> off, Sony are going to really have to pull something nifty out of their
> hat for the PS 2...which I'm sure they will (*slurp*).
> 
> Nick "saving the pennies" F

-- 
-   Joshua Meeds
  Dreamwriter Dragon
      -=UDIC=-
_____________________________________
We are the music-makers,
And we are the dreamers of the dreams

- Willy Wonka quoting
  Arthur O'Shaughnessy